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Martin Rushent RIP (3 January 1948 – 4 June 2011)

Its with great sadness that we receive the news that Martin Rushent died on Saturday. Steve pays tribute, "Martin one was not only a genius but as a 17 yr old making his first record he was a true role model, inspiration and guiding figure. He signed our first record 'Tar' to his record label and for us, started the ball rolling. We recorded our first album at his studio and he was working with us on new material. I was with him only recently, very hard to believe he has now gone. We owe him so much. Thank You. " Rusty recalls the making of the first Visage album - “ Martin, Midge Ure, Barry Adamson, Billy Currie, Dave Formula, John McGeogh, myself and Steve Strange all hanging in your house in summer of 1979 recording our debut album VISAGE … Because YOU believed … THANK YOU … You were a total genius, and like all geniuses before you, you had a crazy life but an amazing body of work … I am welling up remembering your kindness and love for music..". Our thoughts go out to his family, Ceri, Amy, James, Tim and Joanne.

BZCR003: Rusty Egan, Bottin & Justus Köhncke - Atzaro

Next up on Blitz is our first brand new recording. It was recorded in Summer 2010 near Atzaro, Ibiza. Visage and Blitz club music supremo Rusty was staying there over the summer and was making fine use of the inbuilt studio tagged onto his villa. Sounds like some fine inspiration for a summer electro anthem… cue two of the hottest dance producers around; Germany's Justus Köhncke and Italy's Bottin. The Triumvirate was now complete. More Info...

ULTRAVOX's 'Brilliant' Hits Reality

As far as album releases go, the collaborative talents of the classic line-up of ULTRAVOX, featuring Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann, have been somewhat buried for twenty-eight years. Thankfully, that is no longer the case. They’re back, stepping boldly into the spotlight with their new single “Brilliant,” the title track from their forthcoming album, released May 28 on EMI Records.

“Brilliant” it would appear, sees the rebirth of such a finely tuned legacy – hitting the No. 1 spot recently on the Amazon pre-order chart and thus hopefully bringing forth a refreshing take on the shaping of our popular music culture. Excited? You’d better be. There’s even a full U.K. tour to follow later this year, which kicks off September 21st in Bristol, plus more European dates to be announced at the end of this month.

The single, so unmistakably ULTRAVOX – and that’s just the first few opening bars – think provocative piano – casts light towards areas that had previously become overgrown with such prolonged downtime in terms of band activity. The track gives off that same glow I got back in January when I heard around twenty seconds of it on YouTube, having been asked to write a ‘preview’ of sorts for THE ELECTRICITY CLUB (you can read that article here: Evergreen – Why Synth Brittania Still Rules). Since hearing the track in full, my analysis pretty much remains the same:

“Brilliant” – a luminous construction, articulated by those previous melodic concepts that were so prominent in the past; intensified with a euphoric synth tapestry that goes some way to create an intoxicating nostalgic touch.”

You can preorder the album from all the usual outlets (Amazon, Itunes etc), and you can also preview tracks from the album and watch videos via the new Ultravox microsite over at www.ultravoxbrilliant.co.uk

Rusty Egan to play MFEST

Blitz Club are pleased to confirm that Rusty Egan will DJ-ing/Performing at the MFEST – a new family festival supporting all things British, at Harewood House, near Leeds on the 6^th/7^th/8^th July 2012. Be sure to catch Rusty in the Big Top over the weekend!

You can check out all that MFEST has to offer here: http://www.mfest.com

Chris Payne To Release New Solo Album

Blitz Club are excited to inform you that Chris Payne is set to release a new solo album on the 23^rd April 2012 entitled BETWEEN BETJEMAN, BACH AND NUMAN.

Here is the link for amazon pre-order:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Betjeman-Bach-And-Numan/dp/B007G283OU/re...

Blitz Club recently had a sneak preview of a couple of tracks off the album, including a superbly emotive piano version of VISAGE’s classic Fade to Grey, which of course was co-written by Chris. The album comes highly recommended.

For more on Chris Payne, you can view a recent interview here:

http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/html/int_payne.html

Worried About The Boy

Over the past few months we have had tons of people ask us what we thought of the "About A Boy" Boy George Story on BBC2 TV. Well in general we both really liked it. The portrayal of the Blitz Club and us (Steve and Rusty) was pretty good. In the context of a story narrative things were fairly close to actual events as they happened. Some things weren't spot on (like the drugs in the toilets, or the absence of key-figure Philip Sallon in the story). But, hey.. creative licence.

On Blitz Club Records